Disney's Hercules (1999) leaves out many of the traditional stories about Hercules and adds or rewrites others. Which changes or omissions do you wish the scriptwriters had resisted? Which changes do you welcome? Give reasons for your choices.
Posts and one comment on a classmate's post both due Thursday, Nov. 8, before class [disregard what the syllabus says].
I feel that any changes made were actually quite necessary. We must realize that Disney was gearing this film towards little children, and while maybe the myths of old would have adequately suited the learning needs of children in antiquity, the stories would not have been appropriate for children in the late 20th century. There for while I personally would have liked more historically accurate depictions, I feel we must succumb to the fact that Disney did a good job creating a plot that was moral, interesting, and captivating out of this very questionable figure in Greek history. I must say that I enjoyed the film a lot more having done the reading on Hercules and the many different stories. I found it clever just how much Disney was able to incorporate. There for props to them.
ReplyDeleteBoth Olivia below and Nikolas above are right to emphasize that the main target audience is children.
DeleteMany of the jokes, however, are clearly targeted at adults, like the allusions to Hollywood's star cult, including the sightseeing tours and the Walk of Fame in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, the inclusion of Paul Shaffer as Hermes, the scene where Hercules breaks off the arms of a statue of Venus so that it ends up looking like the famous Venus de Milo. All this would be completely lost on children. So Olivia is right to include adults as part of the target audience as well.
All childrens' movies really have to do the difficult balancing act of appealing both to children and to their parents since they pay for the tickets and usually watch the movies in the theater together with their kids.
I agree with Nikolas's assessment of the historically inaccurate aspects of Hercules. Some specific ones were like the scene in which Hercules strangles Pain and Panic when they transform into snakes as a baby. This refers original stories about Hercules defeating snakes as a small child. I think these references to the original myths are well put because they show some of the film maker's knowledge about them. The film is geared toward children and adults (but mostly children), so it is understandable that Hercules is portrayed as innocent (like when he stutters in front of Meg)instead of a man who has or will sleep with 50 women in one night. This is not appropriate for the intended audience.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Olivia that displaying Hercules as innocent is much better than displaying him in the stereotypical Greek fashion. Greek children may have been able to handle the real Hercules the one who slept with 50 women in one night but children these days need to learn more about innocent heroes.
DeleteRegarding Hercules' sexual prowess, I'm sure Greek parents also waited a little bit before they told their kids these stories.
DeleteThe summary of the Hercules _myths_ that we read is just that, a collation of different stories that may never have been told all at once before mythographers like Apollodorus of Athens collected them all around 140 BCE (and the version of his work, the "Bibliotheca", that survives is even younger, from the first or second century CE).
In case you are curious about some of the other in-jokes targeted at adults, imdb lists a number of references to other movies and TV shows (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119282/trivia?tab=mc). The list is far from complete. When Meg meets Pain and Panic in the forest disguised as cuddly little Disney animals (a rabbit and a squirrel, I think), that reminded my of Disney's "Snow White". Not surprisingly, Meg then comments: "Are you looking for a theme park?", i.e., Disneyland. The Fates foretelling the future in their eye-turned-mirror in which Hades briefly sees himself also seems to be a "Snow White" allusion.
DeleteI believe that the disney version of Hercules adapted the 12 challenges that Hercules had to do very well. Although the script writers did not include detailed scenes for all 12 challenges the changes that they made were suitable to the film. The only challenge that the scriptwriters showed with vivid detail was the monster with the regrowing heads. I was fine with all the changes except for the lion. I agree that Hercules killing a lion with its own claw is not appropriate for children but the fact that he was wearing "Scar" from the Lion King was a bit concerning. I really liked how disney was able to incorporate the character Meg and her relationship with Hercules into the plot.
ReplyDeleteI agree Cassie, although they didnt highlight any of the other tasks besides the Hydra, they portrayed the Nemean Lion, what i think were the birds, the boar, technically cerebus and mentioned the amazons and the stables.
DeleteMost of the 12 Labors of Hercules are mentioned in one way or the other. The one that's featured most prominently is the 2nd labor, here the first, Hercules' battle with the Lernaean Hydra. During the "Zero to Hero" song interlude, a number of other labors are alluded to:
Delete– the Nemean Lion (1st labor): the pelt of Scar from Disney's "Lion King",
– maybe the hind of Ceryneia (3rd labor): there is a wall painting of Bambi-like deer in the room where the groupies overrun Herc
– the Erymanthian Boar (4th Labor): we see Herc killing the charging boar with an arrow and later, a picture of him on a Greek vase, serving the boar on a platter;
– possibly the Stymphalian Birds (6th Labor): some monster bird (but just one, not countless ones, as in the myth) ends up in a bird cage;
– possibly the Cretan bull (7th labor), when Hades puts up three more monsters, a minotaur (actually the son of the Cretan Bull and Queen Pasiphae), a roc bird, and a flabby being with Medusa-like snake hair (= the Gorgo killed by Perseus?)
– the 5th and 9th labor (Cleaning Augeas' Stables and Hippolyte's Belt) are mentioned by Phil as Hercules is posing for the painter.
- the capture of Cerberus (12th Labor) appears at the end of the film when Hercules rides on top of the middle head of Cerberus into Hades.
In addition, there is a Greek vase that seems to refer to Hercules and Apollo's fight over the tripod of Delphi (not one of the 12 labors) because Hercules is depicted triumphantly resting his foot on a tripod.
I was also quite satisfied with the changes Disney made as the audience of the movie is primarily children. For example, they changed the characterization of Hera to that of a loving mother who actually gave birth to Hercules. This helped solidify the theme of familial ties that is present throughout the movie and it helped to demonstrate a moral of the story as well. Another change that Disney made was having Megara (Meg) live and not have Hercules kill her in a fit of rage caused by Hera. This was obviously a necessary change as it would be kind of morbid to have Hercules kill Meg after developing their relationship and having them fall in love. It also helped to solidify the idea of love and loyalty portrayed throughout the film
ReplyDeleteI agree that most of the changes Disney made were for the necessity of children watching. Disney movies have a tendency to involve characters that are all "good" or all "bad" in their attempt to teach children morals. Therefore, it probably didn't seem right to Disney to create a hostile figure (Hera) as Zeus's wife, so instead they depicted her as a loving mother. They also didn't want Hercules to have an enormous character flaw, like he did in the original Greek myth.
DeleteI think those changes made a lot of sense to make as well. The Greek myths are also very complicated in regards to relationships between gods and mortals and mistresses and enemies. To attempt to show things more according to the myths would have been unrealistic and hard for children to understand.
DeleteI feel like the changes disney made to the Hercules film (numerous as they were) were all in an attempt to make the film more age appropriate. the omission of Hera as a jealous and vengeance-thirsty goddess who was hell-bent on Hercules' destruction was necessary in order to provide a mother figure for Hercules, but i still feel like having Hera oppose Hercules instead of Hades (since Hades wasnt evil, he was just the god of the dead) would have improved the story a lot. I enjoyed the portrayal of the Titans as monsters because even though the original Titans were basically gods and goddesses (to an extent) giving them a monstrous and less humanoid form and also incorporating the Cyclops (who was never a Titan) gives the audience a universally recognized Greek monster and thus allows them to better see the Titans as antagonists.
ReplyDeleteI agree, having Hera oppose Hercules would have been more faithful to the original myth. However, I think this was another change Disney made to make it more easily understandable to their audience. In our culture, it has been ingrained by the Abrahamic religions that the guy from the underworld (Satan/Lucifer/The Devil/Beelzebub/etc) is the bad guy, and he always tries to take revenge on God(s).
DeleteAgreeing with most of the posts above, I think that most of the changes Disney made to the Hercules stories were for the sake of their intended audience, children. You obviously can't have Hercules killing everyone he meets and bedding 50 women in one night when your audience is mostly 6-10 year-olds. Although, I wish Disney wouldn't have left out that Hercules was the son of Zeus and a mortal. I understand that they were trying to make it seem like Zeus and Hera had a faithful relationship, which is why they had to explain that Hercules became mortal by other means (the potion). But they surprised me by leaving this part out, as usually I would think Disney would try to go for that easy Jesus parallel.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the addition of the James Bond-like plot line in which Hades tries to take over the world. Was that necessary?
ReplyDeleteI think that having Hades try to take over the world made it more vital for Hercules to win. It also further characterized Hades as evil and deserving of defeat.
DeleteThe Disney movie simply had a song that basically spanned all of his trials except for two. He defeated the Hydra first which was not in chronological order and the film hardly mentions any of the other tests. The writers added the part with the Titans and the idea that Hades wanted Hercules dead so that Hades could rule the gods. The addition of the love interest (Meg) made the film more palatable for general audiences that might have very little background information about Hercules. Hades is also a much easier character for viewers to hate because he is supposed to be the "Devil" as opposed to Hercules own mother who comes from the "holy place" of Mount Olympus where all the "good" gods live.
ReplyDeleteConsidering Hercules is a Disney movie, I feel that the changes were handled appropriately. Having Zeus sleep with alcmene would make children confused and complicate the plot. Switching out Hera for Hades as the god that makes Hercules' life difficult. I really liked how they made references to Greek mythology. If there was a change that I wished the creators made, it would be to maybe switch up the story so that certain events happened in order, like the hydra for example,and more emphasis on hi 12 labors
ReplyDeleteI agree with mostly everyone by saying that I think Disney did a really good job at recreating the story of Hercules for the audience. I really liked how they incorporated Hercules' 12 labors. For the audience I thought that it was really creative and not as gruesome. I also liked the change in Hercules' mom. Like Jill said, I thought it was important to create a happy family but also to show that Zeus hadn't slept around. Although it did erk me that Hercules was a God at first when in reality he was a demi-God. But overall I thought the movie was done quite well for the audience it was intended for.
ReplyDeleteI think that Disney did the best job they could in the recreation of a Greek myth that originally was not well-suited for children. It was interesting that they ommitted the idea that Zeus was the father of many children, not just Hercules. It was strange to me that they made Hera his mother, rather than Alcmene, and created mortal parents instead to raise Hercules. I suppose they wanted to keep the plot simple and not contain all the difficult ties (like Alcmene's attactment to Amphitryon, and Zeus's marriage to Hera and infidelity).
ReplyDeleteThey also seemed to contain the movie to Hercules' younger life, rather than spanning over his interests in Deianira and Iole. Obviously, Disney wanted to discard the fact that Megara was killed by Hercules, which would apall most modern audiences. I thought they made Megara interesting by demonstrating her tie to Hades. That was definitely good thinking on the part of Disney. Megara and Hades were excellent additions to the original Greek myth.